SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA: Transit/Transportation News

[homebucket]

Supes Pass No Right on Red
Now it's up to SFMTA to make it happen
4:07 PM PDT on October 4, 2023
By Roger Rudick

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously supported a resolution to ban right on red at its regular meeting on Tuesday.

“This is another important step toward reducing traffic collisions and making our streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists,” said Supervisor Preston, who authored the bill. “We have a duty – especially to kids, seniors, persons with disabilities, and other vulnerable populations – to reach our Vision Zero goals and save lives as an urgent priority.”

...

Right turns on red pose a threat of injury and death to bicyclists and pedestrians, disproportionately impacting communities of color, children, seniors, and those with disabilities, wrote Preston's staff in his release. According to the MTA, turn-on-red crashes account for 20% of pedestrian- or bicycle-related injury crashes involving drivers turning at signal-based intersections. MTA’s 2012-2015 collision report showed that 40% of collisions happen when drivers fail to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks.

The resolution will now be considered by the SFMTA board. If SFMTA follows through, San Francisco will join New York, which has banned right-on-red since forever. Washington, DC, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Seattle also approved bans and are in various phases of putting up signs and rolling it out.

https://sf.streetsblog.org/2023/10/0...o-right-on-red

[Scaevola]

Originally Posted by homebucket

https://www.siliconvalley.com/2023/0...-demand-rises/

Would love to see expansion of service to Salinas. Unfortunately, last I heard, they were planning only 2 round trips/day and the plans do not include direct Caltrain service to Monterey.

Given that Caltrain is heavily relying on Monterrey County Transit for funding and acquisition, I am worried that the planned light rail extension from Castroville to Monterey won't materialize. Given Monterey/Seaside's surprisingly high per capita transit use, it would be a perfect place to extend a one-seat Caltrain ride.

Kinda wish they hadn't turned that part of the Monterey Branch line into a bike trail.

MOU from March:
https://www.caltrain.com/media/28712/download

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Scaevola

Would love to see expansion of service to Salinas. Unfortunately, last I heard, they were planning only 2 round trips/day and the plans do not include direct Caltrain service to Monterey.

Given that Caltrain is heavily relying on Monterrey County Transit for funding and acquisition, I am worried that the planned light rail extension from Castroville to Monterey won't materialize. Given Monterey/Seaside's surprisingly high per capita transit use, it would be a perfect place to extend a one-seat Caltrain ride.

Kinda wish they hadn't turned that part of the Monterey Branch line into a bike trail.

They are turning the bike trail into a BRT corridor as far as Marina. If they get open, it would be a piece of cake to extend it to Castroville for a connection to rail. The busway won't actually go all the way into downtown Monterey, but of course the buses can go on local streets for the last bit...

[Scaevola]

Originally Posted by ardecila

They are turning the bike trail into a BRT corridor as far as Marina. If they get open, it would be a piece of cake to extend it to Castroville for a connection to rail. The busway won't actually go all the way into downtown Monterey, but of course the buses can go on local streets for the last bit...

That sounds fantastic. I hadn't heard of that plan yet. I do still lament the lack of a one-seat Caltrain ride, but at the end of the day BRT seems like a reasonable option.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by homebucket

https://sf.streetsblog.org/2023/10/0...o-right-on-red

Ugh. First you can't take a left, now you can't take a right. You either drive straight until you hit water or hope you can find Market, Van Ness or California St. first.

[Nouvellecosse]

^ Or wait a few moments for the light to turn green and then turn right. But yes, for the many people who don't have that kind of time, driving straight until their car is in the ocean would be the next best alternative.

[homebucket]

One of the things I've always appreciated about BART. It drops you off within 100 ft of the international terminal gates. Makes me wonder if this is the shortest distance from metro station to airport gate in the US?





PC: homebucket

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by homebucket

One of the things I've always appreciated about BART. It drops you off within 100 ft of the international terminal gates. Makes me wonder if this is the shortest distance from metro station to airport gate in the US?





PC: homebucket

definitely much closer than the blue line gets to any gate at O'Hare or the orange line gets to any gate at Midway. I've never taken the St. Louis Metrolink to the airport, but it looks like it gets pretty close?

[aprice1828]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

I've never taken the St. Louis Metrolink to the airport, but it looks like it gets pretty close?

Terminal 2 is okay, you just have to walk through the parking garage for 200' or so. It can be confusing due to the multi-layer nature of the garage, otherwise a straight shot. Terminal 1 is an okay setup but you have to go pretty far into the check-in hall to get down to TSA. Going from the gate to the train can be very confusing, you have to take a small staircase up to the check-in hall and find the signage from there. Not sure I'd be able to do it as a first time visitor.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by aprice1828

Terminal 2 is okay, you just have to walk through the parking garage for 200' or so. It can be confusing due to the multi-layer nature of the garage, otherwise a straight shot. Terminal 1 is an okay setup but you have to go pretty far into the check-in hall to get down to TSA. Going from the gate to the train can be very confusing, you have to take a small staircase up to the check-in hall and find the signage from there. Not sure I'd be able to do it as a first time visitor.

Very nice.

Here's a Streetview of just how close the train gets to the International Terminal:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/rSRLPSz6zoXGxQML8

[JManc]

I wished it was easier to get from the lower East Bay to SFO using BART but you have to go through SF proper to get there and (I think) transfer somewhere in Oakland.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by JManc

I wished it was easier to get from the lower East Bay to SFO using BART but you have to go through SF proper to get there and (I think) transfer somewhere in Oakland.

Looks like it's about 1 hr and 24 min from the Fremont BART station.

Even if there was a Dumbarton rail bridge built to say Redwood City Caltrain, which might be a 20-25 min ride or so, even from there it's a 35-40 min ride (depending on if you can catch a Baby Bullet) and you have to transfer onto BART at Millbrae. So it's not a ton of time saved and still requires a transfer. Unfortunately it's just a difficult area to access from the East Bay.

Alternatively, it'd be pretty cool if BART were to extend from Millbrae down to Burlingame (Meta Reality Labs hub) and San Mateo (also a large employment center), and from there, a third BART Transbay tunnel (in addition to the proposed second Transbay tunnel from Alameda to SoMa) a straight shot east over to Fremont. Only downside is there's going to be a bit of duplicative service with Caltrain from Millbrae to San Mateo.

[Busy Bee]

BART to San Mateo is I think the choice of many armchair transit planners. It seems like an excellent complementary service and a compromise considering ring-the-bay BART is never going to happen. And that's okay. I don't think it would feel duplicative as it would act as a more frequent local service with Caltrain filling the longer trip need. As far as the notion of a third underwater tunnel across the South Bay like that, I think that's about as likely as Mars colonization in our lifetimes. Dumbarton Rail is a solution that can actually happen.

[TWAK]

Wasn't Facebook backing the Dumbarton rail?

[CharlesCO]

Originally Posted by homebucket

One of the things I've always appreciated about BART. It drops you off within 100 ft of the international terminal gates. Makes me wonder if this is the shortest distance from metro station to airport gate in the US?

DEN is pretty close. Their train station is right next to the terminal on the lower level and a very short escalator ride to one of the three security checkpoints. But after security, you have to take a people mover to the concourses and potentially walk up to a half mile to get to your gate. I think DCA is pretty close too, but that's mostly a domestic-only airport.

I'm perhaps biased now, but SFO is perhaps my favorite major airport. It's big but never feels that way. The BART connection is pretty handy, especially if you're flying out of Terminal 3 or the International Terminal.

On the other hand, it could be argued that the BART station is perhaps *too* close to the terminal, as the spur adds a lot of complexity to the network. It might have been simpler to have built a station closer to the main line and have passengers get onto the Air Train from there, or perhaps they should have just extended the Air Train to San Bruno or Millbrae instead.

[SFBruin]

Originally Posted by homebucket

One of the things I've always appreciated about BART. It drops you off within 100 ft of the international terminal gates. Makes me wonder if this is the shortest distance from metro station to airport gate in the US?

I was going to say, maybe the 'L' to O'Hare, but somebody seemed to indicate that this doesn't get as close.

[OhioGuy]

The Washington Metro has a station right next to Washington National Airport (DCA). It's probably only about 200 feet from the end of the platform to the new TSA pre-check spaces. So it's also super convenient and a quick train ride from downtown too. But having flown to/from SFO many times when living in that area, BART is certainly convenient for accessing the airport (from the north... a little more cumbersome for areas southward down the peninsula having to transfer between Caltrain & BART).

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by TWAK

Wasn't Facebook backing the Dumbarton rail?

Meta’s Plans to Revive an Old Rail Bridge Halted During the Pandemic
The company formerly known as Facebook’s once planned to revive the Dumbarton Rail Bridge across the San Francisco Bay. Those plans are as derelict as the bridge.
January 12, 2023, 11:00 AM PST

Starting in 2017, Facebook explored a rebirth of the Dumbarton Rail Bridge, the portion of the 18-mile Dumbarton Rail Corridor that passes over the San Francisco Bay, connecting Menlo Park and Redwood City on the west side of the bay to Newark and Union City to the east. Between 2017 and 2020, Facebook spent $20 million on plans to revive the corridor. An estimate published in 2020 targeted the corridor for operation in 2028.

The pandemic changed the equation of explosive growth that defined the San Francisco Peninsula in the previous decade, according to an article by Issie Lapowsky for the New York Times. The plan is now defunct, reports Lapowsky: “Facebook’s employees went home. Traffic died out, and the future of offices themselves became uncertain. Before long, Facebook abandoned its plans for the railroad.”

https://www.planetizen.com/news/2023...uring-pandemic

[TWAK]

^Thanks for that.

Originally Posted by homebucket

Looks like it's about 1 hr and 24 min from the Fremont BART station.

Even if there was a Dumbarton rail bridge built to say Redwood City Caltrain, which might be a 20-25 min ride or so, even from there it's a 35-40 min ride (depending on if you can catch a Baby Bullet) and you have to transfer onto BART at Millbrae. So it's not a ton of time saved and still requires a transfer. Unfortunately it's just a difficult area to access from the East Bay.

Alternatively, it'd be pretty cool if BART were to extend from Millbrae down to Burlingame (Meta Reality Labs hub) and San Mateo (also a large employment center), and from there, a third BART Transbay tunnel (in addition to the proposed second Transbay tunnel from Alameda to SoMa) a straight shot east over to Fremont. Only downside is there's going to be a bit of duplicative service with Caltrain from Millbrae to San Mateo.

As there are four lines, they all don't have to run down to SJ on the same alignment.
The red line can be rerouted to follow HW 1, yellow to SFO maybe terminating there or continuing to the south bay, Blue follows 280/85, Green as the BART loop. The homebucket (purple) line can go ahead and head to Fremont.

[TWAK]

quick mockup and don't pay attention to the red south of Daily City

The blue line could go to the 1/280 split instead of the San Bruno alignment.